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Thursday, 27 September 2018

Motorola has launched One Power Android One smartphones in India. It is available in Black colour and is priced at Rs. 15,999. The smartphone will be available via online shopping partner Flipkart starting October 5.

Tuesday, 11 September 2018

Motorola has launched Moto G6 Plus smartphone in India. It is available in Deep Indigo color, is priced at Rs. 22499. The smartphone will be exclusively available via online shopping partner Amazon as well as Moto Hub stores offline.

The smartphone comes with Launch offers (only available offline) for Paytm Mall customers include Rs. 3,000 cashback for purchases made using the app. Jio users will get cashback of Rs. 4,450 on recharges of Rs. 198 and Rs. 299 (instant cashback Rs. 2,200, Cleartrip cashback vouchers worth Rs. 1,250, and Ajio.com discount worth Rs. 1,000). Buyers will also get no-cost EMIs from Bajaj FinServ.

Wednesday, 22 August 2018

Xiaomi’s sub-brand Poco has launched Poco F1 smartphone in India. The Xiaomi Poco F1 price in India is Rs. 20,999 for the variant with 6GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. Its 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage model will cost Rs. 23,999 in India. Lastly, the 8GB RAM and 256GB built-in storage model, priced at Rs. 28,999. As for the Armoured Edition model with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, buyers will have to shell out Rs. 29,999.

The smartphone comes with launch offers. Purchases made using HDFC Bank credit and debit cards, as well as EMIs, will get a flat Rs. 1,000 discount on the first sale. Jio customers will get up to 6TB of additional data and cashback worth Rs. 8,000 from Jio. The handset will come with a soft case in the box. The smartphone will be available via Flipkart as well as Mi.com and the first sale will be held on August 29 at 12pm IST.

Thursday, 9 August 2018

Xiaomi has launched Mi A2, its latest Android One smartphone in India. It is available in Lake Blue, Gold, Rose Gold and Black colors and is priced at Rs. 16,999 for the 4GB RAM with 64GB RAM version, and the 6GB RAM with 128GB storage version will be available soon. the smartphone will be exclusively available via online shopping partner Amazon. The smartphone will be available for pre-order from August 9th. It comes with Rs. 2200 instant cashback (in the form of vouchers) and 4.5TB additional data for Jio users.

Tuesday, 31 July 2018

WhatsApp group voice and video calls are finally live. Back in May, WhatsApp said that it will roll out group calling feature in coming months. Today it has announced that it has started rolling out the group calls for voice and video for everyone starting today.

You can make a group call with up to four people total - anytime and anywhere. Just start a one-on-one voice or video call and tap the new "add participant" button in the top right corner to add more contacts to the call.

Group calls are always end-to-end encrypted, and we've designed calling to work reliably around the world in different network conditions. The feature is currently rolling out on the iPhone and Android versions of our app, it should be available for everyone over the next few days.

Tuesday, 24 July 2018

Xiaomi-backed wearable brand Huami launched Amazfit Bip and Amazfit Stratos smartwatches in India. The Amazfit Bip comes in four colour variants - Cinnabar Red, Kokoda Green, Onyx Black, and White Cloud. The Amazfit Stratos is available in only a single Black colour option. Amazfit Bip is available at Rs. 5,499 and the Amazfit Stratos is priced at Rs. 15,999. The Amazfit Bip and Amazfit Stratos are already available on Flipkart.

Friday, 20 July 2018

WhatsApp said Thursday it is planning to limit message forwarding in India, where two dozen people have been killed this year in violent mobs fueled by rumours spreading on the global messaging platform, and is instituting a new global limit on forwards around the world.

The company said in a blog post-Thursday evening in the United States that it is launching a test to limit forwarding on WhatsApp in India, where people forward more messages and videos than anywhere else in the world. The controls include a plan to limit the number of chats that users can send forward to five in India and remove the "quick forward" button next to media messages.

WhatsApp

For the global version of the application, the company will limit the number of forwards to 20 other groups. The move marks a major change to the architecture of an application increasingly used for political communication by 1.5 billion people across the world in response to public pressure and a departure for a service that has long taken a more hands-off approach.

"We believe that these changes - which we'll continue to evaluate - will help keep WhatsApp the way it was designed to be: a private messaging app," WhatsApp's spokesman Carl Woog wrote.

Earlier Thursday, India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had warned WhatsApp to come up with more effective solutions to stop mob violence - or face legal action.

The government said in a statement that the general sentiment in the country is that "much more needs to be done by WhatsApp."

"When rumours and fake news get propagated by mischief mongers, the medium used for such propagation cannot evade responsibility and accountability," the government wrote. "If they remain, mute spectators, they are liable to be treated as abettors and thereafter face consequent legal action."

Other countries around the world have also grappled with the spread of fake news on the platform - including during a recent yellow fever epidemic in Brazil - but in India, the fake news problem is particularly pernicious because so many digitally naive users are coming online for the first time. Many of the mobs attacked people they thought were child kidnappers because of rumours that had spread on WhatsApp.

Officials from the Menlo Park, California-based company are in India this week to meet with digital literacy organisations and civil society leaders to discuss the spate of violence that has prompted calls for it to do more to control the spread of viral content on the app, used by 225 million people in India, according to the Indian government.

The company, owned by Facebook, said this week that it had studied the way that WhatsApp was used by a particular Indian political party - which it did not name - in a recent state election in Karnataka, saying that campaign operatives formed dozens of WhatsApp groups, added telephone numbers and used those groups to send thousands of politically oriented spam messages. Spokesmen for the two major national political parties - the governing Bharatiya Janata Party and the main opposition Indian National Congress - denied manipulating the app.

WhatsApp said that use of the app in this ways violates its terms of service - as well as why the app was built in the first place.

"We built WhatsApp as a private messaging app - a simple, secure and reliable way to communicate with friends and family. And as we've added new features, we've been careful to try and keep that feeling of intimacy which people say they love," Woog wrote.

Thursday, 5 July 2018

Asus has launched its flagship smartphone Zenfone 5Z in India. It is available in Midnight Blue and Meteor Silver colours. The smartphone is priced at Rs. 29,999 for the 6GB RAM with 64GB storage version, the 128GB storage version costs Rs. 32,999 and the 8GB RAM with 256GB storage version cost Rs. 36,999. It will go on sale exclusively on Flipkart from July 9th.

The smartphone comes with launch offers and it includes flat Rs. 3,000 discount on ICICI credit and debit cards, Flipkart's 'Complete Mobile Protection' at Rs. 499 (down from Rs. 2,299), no-cost EMIs starting from Rs. 3,333 a month, Jio offer with Rs. 2,200 cashback and 100GB additional data. The company is also touting that ZenFone 5Z buyers will be able to enjoy service benefits like invoice free walk-in, free pick-up and drop, and device swap at service centres.

Friday, 20 April 2018

Motorola has announced Moto G6, Moto G6 Plus and Moto G6 Play in Brazil. The smartphones will become available to purchase in Brazil today, and next week in Mexico; various countries in Asia Pacific - including India - Europe, Latin America and North America markets will get the handsets in the next couple of months. The Moto G6 price (MSRP) has been set as $249 (roughly Rs. 16,500), while the Moto G6 Play will cost the buyers $199 (approximately Rs. 13,000). As for the Moto G6 Plus price, it has been set as EUR 299 (about Rs. 24,350). There is no word yet on the Moto G6 series’ price in India or release date yet, though given the Moto G series’ popularity in the country, e can expect that to change soon.

Moto G6 features 5.7-inch (2160 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 IPS display powered by 1.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 450 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 506 GPU. It comes in two variant with 3GB RAM with 32GB internal storage and 4GB RAM with 64GB internal storage which is expandable via microSD up to 128GB. It sports a dual rear camera with 12MP rear camera with LED Flash, 5MP secondary rear camera and 16MP front-facing camera with LED flash. It runs on Android 8.0 Oreo and has 3000mAh battery with Turbo charging.

Moto G6 Play features 5.7-inch (1440 × 720 pixels) HD+ 18:9 IPS display powered by 1.4GHz Octa-Core 64-bit Snapdragon 430 (MSM8937) Mobile Platform with Adreno 505 GPU. It comes in two variant with 2GB RAM with 16GB internal storage and 3GB RAM with 32GB internal storage which is expandable via microSD up to 128GB. It sports a 13MP rear camera with LED Flash and 8MP front-facing camera with LED flash. It runs on Android 8.0 Oreo and has 4000mAh battery with Turbo charging.

Wednesday, 4 April 2018

HMD Global has launched Nokia 8 Sirocco smartphone in India. It will be available in Black color and is priced at 49,999. The smartphone will be available from 30th April, Pre-bookings from April 20th on Flipkart online, offline and Nokia mobile shop online

The company has promised special cashback offers for the Nokia 7 Plus-

Airtel prepaid customers get 20GB additional data on each of the first 6 recharges of Rs 199 or Rs 349, postpaid customers can avail the additional 20GB per month on the Rs 399 or Rs 499 plan for 6 months.

HMD Global has launched Nokia 7 Plus smartphone in India. It will be available in Black / Copper and White / Copper colour and is priced at 25,999. The smartphone will be available from 30th April, Pre-bookings from April 20th on Amazon.in online, offline and Nokia mobile shop online.

The company has promised special cashback offers for the Nokia 7 Plus-

HMD Global has launched Nokia 6 (2018) smartphone in India. It will be available in Black/ Copper, White/ Iron, and Blue/ Gold colour and is priced at 16,999. The smartphone will be available from April 6th offline and Nokia mobile shop online.

The company has promised special cashback offers for the Nokia 6 (2018) -

Monday, 2 April 2018

Jio Prime subscription for all users has already expired, but as the operator has announced, it will remain free for one more year for all customers who have paid for the service once. Of course, you need to apply for the Jio Prime free renewal as it is not automatically credited to the users.

For existing prime members, Here is how you renew your subscription for one more year

Download MyJio

Express your interest to get a complimentary membership for next 12 months by clicking the banner on the app’s home page

Verify your number and the linked accounts and click proceed

Your request to the available free JioPrime membership for a year has been registered

You will get a confirmation by the end of the day or tomorrow

Enjoy Jio Prime benefits

For new prime members

Pay Rs. 99 during onboarding, for Jio Prime membership for the annual subscription.

With 175 million users across the country on the network, it is likely some Jio subscribers will face some glitches while trying to renew Prime for free. Well, if that's the case with you as well, then there's a simple solution you can try out.

You are probably not seeing the message to extend Prime as you are not an active Jio user despite purchasing the Rs. 99 subscription. If you don’t see the banner asking you to get service for another year, force quit the app and stream videos for 15 minutes or so using - and this is important - Jio 4G data of the number whose membership you are trying to review. Once you’ve done that, start the MyJio app once again, and log in using the same number — you should now be able to see the banner message prompting you to apply for Jio Prime membership renewal.

Once you see the message, you just need to follow the standard renewal process. Tap on the Get Now button in the banner, and you will see a message saying the operator is extending the subscription for one full year, and the numbers registered to you below it. Simply select the number whose Prime subscription you want to extend from the list, and hit Proceed. Your subscription will get renewed in a couple of hours.

Saturday, 31 March 2018

Reliance Jio launched Reliance Jio Prime membership at a one-time payment of Rs. 99 for a year back in March last year, which was supposed to end today, 31st March 2018. The company has officially announced that all Jio Prime members who have subscribed to the exclusive membership benefits till 31st March 2018 will get another year of complimentary Prime benefits at no additional fee, which it calls a limited period offer.

However, those who join the Jio network and opt for Prime after April 1 will have to pay Rs. 99 as the membership cost. As before, the Prime benefits will be provided to customers for a period of 12 months, i.e. March 2019. However, existing users will have to go through an opt-in process to avail the free service for another year.

Jio said in a statement, “The continued availability of the Jio Prime membership to new subscribers reiterates Jio’s commitment to deliver a differentiated Digital Life experience to Indians, and will propel this into the world’s largest loyalty programme.”

Jio Prime subscription is essential if you want to benefit from the offers the company provides from time to time, such as the Rs. 50 discounts on recharge packs with daily data allocations. Similarly, the Jio promise to offer data tariffs 20 percent lower than the nearest competitor works out for Prime users only. Moreover, the access to content apps, which the operator values at Rs. 10,000 for the whole year, comes only with plans for which Prime subscription is a pre-requisite. Jio's suite of apps includes Jio TV, Jio Music, Jio News, etc. However, despite the membership, customers are still required to purchase separate recharge packs with validities to use the network.

Monday, 12 February 2018

WhatsApp Payments feature which is based on UPI has started rolling out in India which will mean that you will be able to send money to your friends and family right from WhatsApp. The most widely used messaging service across the globe started rolling out the UPI-based Payments feature in India to select users last week. The app is already popular with Indian users across different age groups who love to send "good morning" texts to kick start the day and adding the Payments feature just makes more sense for the messaging app.

The rollout of WhatsApp Payments has started from India which means that the company is looking to end the dominance of apps like Paytm, Google Tez, and other digital wallet apps that have been around for a long time. Also read: 10 secret WhatsApp tricks you (probably) didn't know about

With over 200 million monthly active users in India, WhatsApp shouldn't face any trouble bringing its large user base to get a taste of Payments feature. Facebook's move to bring Payments feature to India first on WhatsApp clearly seems a way to cash in on the digital payment in its early days. The WhatsApp Payments feature was being tested as a beta feature with select users but now more users have started receiving the feature. Also read: WhatsApp UPI-based payments feature rolling out in India

It was no secret as WhatsApp was reportedly in talks with top Indian banks for months to integrate Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Unlike previously believed, the WhatsApp Payments feature is being rolled out to both Android as well as iOS users simultaneously.

How to send money using WhatsApp payments

The WhatsApp Payments will be limited to peer-to-peer payment and does not offer merchant payment, as of now.

Before getting started with WhatsApp Payments, users will have to note few things like:

For WhatsApp Payments to work, both sender and receiver should be running the latest WhatsApp version as well as have WhatsApp Payments option enabled.

Another important fact is WhatsApp number should be same as your mobile number linked to your bank account with UPI option support as well.

WhatsApp users who have already received the feature can head to Settings > Payments to start setting up the Payments option. As of now, WhatsApp Payments is working on an invite basis which means those who have received the Payments feature can activate for others by choosing the option from chat.

On tapping the option, users will be welcomed by a new message saying "Send and receive money securely with UPI" and users need to tap on "Accept and Continue" to start accepting the WhatsApp Payments. The users will be also offered the Terms and Privacy policy and the payment provider's terms and privacy policy which they can read or just skip to the next option.

Users then will have to verify their phone numbers by choosing "Verify via SMS" and that can be done by tapping on the green coloured send button on the next screen to send a verification SMS from your phone. It's worth noting that the SMS charges will be applicable.

Once the WhatsApp number has been configured then add your bank from a vast list of over 70 banks. WhatsApp has managed to get all major banks for its new WhatsApp Payments feature on-board which include Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Yes Bank, Airtel Payments Bank, Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, and more.

If you already have UPI option enabled with your bank then you will need to verify with SMS.

New users need not to worry as WhatsApp Payments offers an option to create a UPI account with a pin (much like your ATM pin) for authenticating the payments. This can be done in less than 10 minutes by just following the instructions.

Users need to remember that the WhatsApp number and the mobile number registered with your bank should be same or else you need to get it linked with your bank before proceeding with WhatsApp Payments.

Now, how to send money to a friend using Payments feature on WhatsApp. To start sending money, tap on the menu in any chat to access Payment option apart from other options like send a photo, video, file, contact, or location.

Choose a WhatsApp contact you want to send your first payment, select the bank account and amount > Enter the UPI Pin > Money sent. One of the biggest highlights of the WhatsApp Payment is it uses UPI to send money in no time.

Once the transaction is complete, WhatsApp also notifies the user about the money sent to a contact. You can also keep a track of Payments from within the app, by using the Payment history option in WhatsApp.

Friday, 19 January 2018

The WhatsApp Business standalone app was announced by Facebook on Wednesday in an effort to make business communication with customers more streamlined for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) on the popular messaging platform. A part of its WhatsApp for Business initiative that was first officially announced back in September last year and tested with businesses like BookMyShow and MakeMyTrip in India since, the new app for SMEs is now available to download via Google Play in Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the UK, and the US. The WhatsApp Business app is free, and will be rolled out across the world in the coming weeks, which is when it can be expected in India. It will be only available for Android phones at launch, but the company will eventually have a version for iPhones too.

The WhatsApp Business app is aimed at making it easier to for small companies to connect with their customers, and more convenient for the 1.3 billion WhatsApp users to chat with businesses that matter to them. The app will help customers with useful information such as a business description, email or store addresses and website.

It will also save time with smart messaging tools - quick replies that provide fast answers to frequently asked questions, greeting messages that introduce customers to your business, and away messages that let them know you're busy.

"People will know that they're talking to a business because you will be listed as a Business Account. Over time, some businesses will have Confirmed Accounts once it's been confirmed that the account phone number matches the business phone number," WhatsApp said in a statement.

Regular users can continue using WhatsApp as usual as there's no need to download anything new. "People will continue to have full control over the messages they receive, with the ability to block any number, including businesses, as well as report spam," the company added.

The statement claimed WhatsApp helps over 80 percent of small businesses in India and Brazil communicate with customers and grow their business, citing a Morning Consult study. WhatsApp also claimed that 84 percent of SMBs think that WhatsApp helps them communicate with customers, andA80 percent of SMBs think that WhatsApp helps them grow their business.

The new business accounts are aimed at firms that receive a high volume of WhatsApp messages and need help keeping up, WhatsApp Chief Operating Officer Matt Idema said. "What we saw was a need for businesses to have more efficient tools," Idema said in an interview with Reuters.

Idema, who was a Facebook executive before he joined WhatsApp last year, said WhatsApp intends to charge businesses in some form in the future, but he said it was too soon to discuss when that would happen or what the future business services would look like.

WhatsApp competes in a crowded market that also includes Facebook's Messenger application, Tencent Holdings's WeChat and numerous other messaging services.